Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced at a press conference that the United States Department of Justice would no longer prosecute individuals for providing medical marijuana. (Lots o’ links here. The text of the press conference, however, is not online as of this posting, but C-Span has video of the conference here. According to the Huffington Post, the exchange occures at about the 25:00 point.)
According to most reports, the policy is to stop raiding growers of legitimate medical marijuana in the states that have legalized medical marijuana. However, if the grow operation is just a front, then all bets are off–such growers may still get prosecuted. And, according NPR’s Weekend Edition, enforcement is still a confused situation, even in the states where it has been legalized, such as Maine.
Marijuana is a tricky drug. According to the United States Congress, tetrahydrocannibols (THC is how this is shortened, and it’s the active chemical in marijuana) are Schedule I drugs, which “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and that there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.” 21 U.S.C. § 812. However, one has to possess with the intent to distribute an awful lot of marijuana (1000 kilograms or 1000 plants) to be subject to the same punishment as possessing with the intent to distribute, say, 50 grams of crack. So clearly, the perceived “danger” of marijuana is far less than the perceived “danger” of other controlled substances. Furthermore, with certain states approving medical marijuana for certain circumstances, what does that have to say about “no currently accepted medical use”?
Anyway, this isn’t about whether marijuana is good or not, or whether it should be illegal or not. It’s just information about an apparent policy shift that I happen to think is a positive step in the right direction.
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